The A3 motorway ( sq, Autostrada or Autostradë A3) is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

spanning across the

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Elbasan Elbasan ( ; sq-definite, Elbasani ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central ...

and

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

. It consists of two

traffic lane In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in eac ...

s and an emergency lane in each driving direction, except in tunnels where there are emergency bays instead, separated by a central reservation. After its completion in the summer of 2019, the motorway connects the country's capital city

with the

Pan-European Corridor VIII The Corridor VIII is one of the Pan-European corridors. It comprises both road and rail routes. Both commence on the Italian Adriatic coast at Bari or Brindisi, with a ferry crossing to Durrës in Albania. From there the routes cross the souther ...

on the SH7, which connects

Durrës Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the second most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. It is located on a flat plain along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast between the mouths of ...

on the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria **Varna Province **Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna **Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis *Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy *Varniai, a city in Lithuania * Varna (Šaba ...

on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. As a part of the road network of Albania, the motorway is a part of a major

European route The international E-road network is a numbering system for roads in Europe developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The network is numbered from E1 up and its roads cross national borders. It also reaches Centr ...

, the E852.

Description

Tirana–Elbasan section

The motorway starts at the TEG Shopping Center interchange connection with Tirana's Outer Ring in Lundër near Sauk south of the

Grand Park Grand Park is a park located in the civic center of Los Angeles, California. First developed in 1966 as the 'Civic Center Mall' with plazas, fountains and a Court of Flags, it is now a part of the larger redevelopment known as the Grand Avenu ...

of Tirana, and follows a route parallel to the National Road 3 (SH3) on the Erzen Valley until the village of

Krrabë Krrabë is a town and a former municipality in the Tirana County, central Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision of the municipality Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. I ...

. Close to the border between the counties of

and

, the motorway passes along the Krraba tunnel. Passing the tunnel, the highway continues within the Kusha Valley towards

, where it meets the SH3 again at Bradashesh where the motorway ends. According to the former Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure,

Sokol Olldashi Sokol Olldashi (17 December 1972 – 20 November 2013) was an Albanian politician. A member of the Democratic Party of Albania, he was the Minister of Public Works, Transportation and Telecommunications in the cabinet of Sali Berisha. After the ...

, the construction of the Tirana bypass or outer ring began in March 2011. On 29 April 2011, the construction work on the

tunnel started and was finalized in March 2013. The end of construction for the entire route from Tirana to Elbasan was projected for June 2013 (18 months construction time), however a hill collapse near Ibe further delayed completion due to inadequate geological feasibility studies. The highway was only completed in the summer of 2019. The total cost of the motorway amounted to 440 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. The funding was partially taken over by the Islamic Development Bank. The motorway contains 21 viaducts and 2

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s, each with a length of .

Berat–Tepelena section

In the long run, a further expansion of the highway to

Berat Berat (; sq-definite, Berati) is the ninth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Berat County and Berat Municipality. By air, it is north of Gjirokastër, west of Korçë, south of Tirana, and east of Fier. Berat is located in ...

and Tepelenë is planned. Autostrada_A3_(OSCAL19_trip).jpg, A3 northbound towards Tirana Krraba Tunnel.jpg, Krraba tunnel during construction.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:A3 (Albania) Motorways in Albania Transport in Elbasan County Transport in Tirana County Pan-European Corridor VIII

Description

Tirana–Elbasan section

Berat–Tepelena section

See also

References

External links